Europa Editions’ Objects of Desire

How a small Italian press managed to turn works in translation into a form of social currency.

Image

Europa Editions’ books have a visual identity that’s as distinct as their literary sensibility.CreditMarko Metzinger

Recently, something improbable happened in the literary world: Europa Editions — a small, Italian-born publisher — became, of all things, a coveted intellectual brand. We don’t like to think a book’s cover matters too much, yet the decade-old press has somehow become as much of a name as its authors. Readers have taken to Instagramming its titles to broadcast their cultural verve and savoir faire, and to displaying their book while out at a restaurant, perched on the edge of a table for all to admire.

Even if you haven’t heard of Europa Editions, you’ve probably heard of some of its hits. There’s Muriel Barbery’s “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” (more than a million copies sold); Jane Gardam’s “Old Filth” (now in its 20th printing); and Alexander Maksik’s “You Deserve Nothing” (so far, the biggest title by an American). Like any good branded product, the books have an instantly recognizable visual stamp: stiff paper covers edged with white borders that frame color-drenched matte backgrounds. According to Europa’s Australian-born editor in chief, Michael Reynolds, “When you see them all together, they draw you in like a bowl of candy.”

That effect is completely deliberate. Europa books are the invention of the Italian husband-and-wife publishing team Sandro Ferri and Sandra Ozzola Ferri, founders of the independent Roman house Edizioni E/O, who have been bringing the likes of Christa Wolf and Ryszard Kapuscinski to Italian readers since 1979. Because their countrymen are notoriously unenthusiastic book readers, the Ferris designed alluring covers to tempt reluctant Italian eyes.

In 2004, the couple began to dream of luring Americans to their kind of literature, too. They hired Reynolds as an editor and an American publisher, Kent Carroll, to run Europa’s New York office. “They felt that, after 9/11, walls were going up in terms of how countries were communicating,” says Reynolds. The Ferris wanted to break down those walls by making Americans hungry for fiction with a global outlook. The surest way to instill that hunger, they thought — apart from choosing titles that had been well-received overseas — was to add some European visual flair. When the first title was published, in 2005, its “great, graphic look” enticed Scott Kinberger, of Books Inc., in California, to order copies for the company’s San Francisco airport store. “We got an immediate reaction,” he said. Over time, the store sold 1,000 books. “For a small press, an unknown writer and a book in translation, that was quite significant,” he said.

But what really distinguishes Europa from other publishers of successful titles is that readers — and book buyers — see the house and its authors as equally relevant. Early in 2006, when Europa Editions had been in existence for less than a year, Toby Cox, the owner of Three Lives & Company bookstore in Manhattan’s West Village, noticed that customers were already coming in and asking “What’s new from Europa?” The press had succeeded in transforming spinach into chocolate — that is, in changing the idea of foreign fiction from “ ‘This is a translation’ to ‘This is a good story, well told,’ ” Cox says.

Of course, many eminent houses have published fine paperback fiction with éclat before Europa — notably, Penguin and Vintage — and Reynolds praises the “iconic imprints” New Directions, City Lights and Archipelago, which also specialize in writers from abroad. “I’m proud of the fact that we do work that is literary,” he says. “But I am even prouder of the fact we are doing works that are entertaining and pleasing.”

Italians have always known the importance of making una bella figura. But Europa Editions has perfected the art of making una bella lettura.